My new favorite snack - Salted coconut

This has to be the easiest recipe since boiled water. Take a husked coconut, pierce the 'eyes' of the coconut and drain off the water. Put the
coconut in the oven or toaster oven on 300 degrees F. and bake for 20 minutes. Take it out, let it cool to room temp. Strike the coconut shell
with the back of a cleaver until it cracks into pieces. The baking will have separated the coconut meat from the shell somewhat. Push a spoon
between the mean and the shell and pop the meat free.

Slice the coconut meat into 1/4" - 3/8" wide slices. Put on a cookie sheet and salt. Onion salt is often a no-go. Garlic salt is nasty, take my
word for it. Seasoning salt works. Plain salt is best. When the coconut meat bakes, the sweetness becomes more prevalent. Salt + sweet = yum.
It sorta tastes like theater popcorn that has been slathered with salt and "butter flavoring". ewg.

Long ago I worked in a famous theatre in downtown Hollywood. They served popcorn with "butter flavoring" that came in a 5-gallon bucket and was a
solid at room temperature. It was salty, yellow grease and it tasted wonderful. This snack is wholesome, nutritious and much tastier and yet
healthier than the theater popcorn.

Of late, I've taken to carrying this snack when I'm on a trike ride, hike on the bluff, or rowing in the sea. It's like pemmican lite. Good stuff.
try it!

The first time I made this, I peeled off the brown exterior. I actually like it better with the exterior, and yes, it has a nice, mildly sweet smell
when baking. Go easy with the salt.

If you eat the skins of potatoes, you'll probably like the brown skin of the coconut. Looks better that way too. If you slice the pieces 1/8 of an
inch, they curl into little rings when you bake them. Bake until they just begin to turn a very light brown.

It was coco-delicious! I drizzled a very tiny bit of honey over em' too, because I love honey. Incidentally, the produce gal told me that her dog
loves coconuts and they make a terrific chewing treat. My dog loved a coconut half, and it kept her busy for about 45 minutes, much longer than a
rawhide. She just gnawed all the good stuff out and left the shell. So now I have reason to make coconuts a permanent item for my grocery list.
Thanks again!

I haven't had coconuts in a while and never baked them. Really, I never thought of it. It sounds tasty, though. I ought to try it. Maybe put
chocolate on it. Does baking it also make the shell easier to break?

Yes, that's the purpose of baking it briefly in-shell -- it makes the shell easier to break, and also separates the meat from the inside of the
shell. Coconut and chocolate??? weeeeee! Can't miss, right? How about toasted coconut, peanut butter and chocolate? Tasty snack either way
you do it.

I got thinking about this because my Bride came home with chocolate pretzels. I hadn't considered how yummy sweet/salt mixes are, so we fired up
the oven and made these things. A healthy snack. Who would've thunk it?

Adding almonds to the mix sounds good, too. You could even make a sort of trail mix by adding other nuts, coconut, dried fruit or berries, or M&Ms.
The last probably wouldn't be very healthy but it sounds good. Considering how much you get at the store when buying the items separately, it would
probably be cheaper making your own in the long run.

I'm with you, for the most part -- coconut flavored anything......... yuch. Raw, toasted coconut? mmmmmmyum. SHAKE from your own tree? Sounds
like a natural-selection device to me

The tree tells you when they're ready and they fall on their own.

If you pick one from the store, make sure it has water inside. Drain and drink the water. Be careful with coconut initially, until your system
acclimates to it -- it's full of fiber and a natural laxative, especially the water. If it becomes part of your daily diet as it has mine, you can
take more without *cough* repercussions. We cook with coconut milk (rice n' peas [beans]), coconut-dipped fish, make coconut oil (very nice) and
occasionally make our own soap from the oil. It takes a LOT of coconuts to make oil and even more to make soap.

Even after Hurricane Paloma snapped more than a dozen of ours like carrots, we still have at least 20 that produce well. People come for miles
around to gather from our trees. Coconut dinner -- a local favorite -- coconut with salt beef and fish in a white sauce and sea pie (a flat
tasteless dumpling). I don't care for it. Beef or fish, fine, don't mix them.

The Above Top Secret Web site is a wholly owned social content community of The Above Network, LLC.

This content community relies on user-generated content from our member contributors. The opinions of our members are not those of site ownership who maintains strict editorial agnosticism and simply provides a collaborative venue for free expression.